structed will be used for other purposes. At Fort Union also is the ordnance depot for New Mexico. At present all the ordnance and ordnance stores are kept in a confused group of log and abode buildings which have been erected from time to time since 1851 as temporary shelter until a proper arsenal should be constructed. Authority for building such arsenal was given, as I understand, about the time the civil war broke out, but it was concluded that nothing should be done toward carrying into execution any plan or orders in the case until the war ended. In my opinion the since for such arsenal should be near the junction of the Mora and Sapello Rivers, seven miles south of Fort Union. There water-power for driving machinery, &c., can be had and stone for building or for foundations and walls is very convenient, and fuel is abundant and quite near.

Second. Fort Bascom is on the right bank of the Canadian River. This post will accommodate three companies. It was established by myself in 1863 to help guard the eastern frontier of New Mexico from Comanche raids and to protect the people who desired to extend settlements farther down the Canadian. The post is building, but will be nearly completed this fall.

Third. Fort Summer is on the left bank of the Pecos River. This post was established by myself in the fall and winter of 1862. It is nearly completed and will have quarters for six companies. The Navajo and Apache Reservation is at Fort Summer, and here I have 7,622 prisoners of those tribes, who are fed by the subsistence department, and will be thus supplied with food until they can raise enough to sustain themselves. The reserve has been made by Congress and is forty miles square, with Fort Summer in the center. Captain John B. Shinn, Third U. S. Artillery, has been ordered by General Grant to survey it, and he is now en route from Albuquerque to fulfill his instructions to this end. The care and management of this number of wild Indians and the system to be inaugurated and carried out, which shall gradually charge them from lawless savages to a people who are to obey necessary rules for their good behavior and general tranquillity, and show them as well the necessary of earning their bread by the labor of their hands, will doubtless engage the attention and have the solicitude of the commander of the department. I think it would be well for him to come here and give this matter a personal inspection. No written account of what has been done or what should be done would impress upon his mind a proper idea of the subject. A Congressional committee, consisting of Senator J. R. Doolittle (chairman), Vice-President Foster, and Representative Ross, visited the reservation in June of this year, but their stay was so short and their inspection so cursory that much remains to be considered and acted upon which cannot be considered in their report. If the commanding general would come here and look into the matter himself he would then be able to give detailed instructions with reference to this very important and interesting experiment of colonizing the wild Indians of New Mexico. If I am to remain in command here it would help me very much to have the benefit of his counsel and instruction in a matter involving such immense interests and now of considerable expense to the Government, and besides would lighten not a little the burden of responsibility of such a charge.

Four. Fort Stanton was originally built for four companies. It is on the right bank of the Rio Bonito, affluent to the Pecos. During the Texan invasion it was abandoned by our troops and afterward destroyed by fire. In 1862, when I organized a campaign against the Mescalero Apaches, it was so occupied as far as practicable by making temporary